Newbie trying a homemade feed.

[Dominique King]

Heeeey everybody!
I just made a mixture of homemade chicken feed for my flock and wanted to share!
It is not their full feed, it is just to dull the cost down on their normal Poulin Grain feed.
THIS IS NOT A FULL REPLACEMENT OF NORMAL CHICKEN FOOD.
I used a 50/50 Poulin Grain Scratch of whole oats and cracked corn.
The bag is 50 lbs
Next I bought a 12 lbs bag of 5 Grain Scratch containing:
Corn
Wheat
Milo
Sunflower Seeds
Flax Seeds
And Boon Worms
The company that makes this is Pecking Order Backyard Poultry Food
Next I used a 20 lbs bag of Black Oil Sunflower Seeds.
I used only half of it though.
I couldn’t find any other brand besides Blue Seal so I had to make due with that.
I filled a 20 gallon Galvanized Drum
with 78 lbs + of food.
I just put it down into their yard and they all came running and acted like the piranhas they are and started to chow down!
I gave them around 4 cups because I have 23 chickens.
This is also so that I can save more food over the winter as well as money.
Here in New Hampshire we can get rough winters so I am trying this in addition to the 50 lbs bag of The Soy Free Egg Production + that we usually get.
I am trying to save money as well as giving my flock more nutrition.
I never forget to give them plenty of greens!
As well as wagons full of leaves for them to ‘leaf’ through.
Since I can’t have them free range over winter, I am trying this now before the snow sets in.
I will give any update to see how long this feed lasts.
I am open to any ‘feed’ back you can give me!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

You aren't giving them more nutrition with that. You are diminshing the nutritional value of your primary feed and significantly altering the AA profile.

I will say, however, that your primary feed is above recommended minimums on both CP and Methionine (the amino most deficient in the proteins found w/i the scratch grains you are mixing). Nutrition tag for the Pecking Order 5 Grain plus Boon Worms, below.

High levels of oats introduces anti-nutritional factors which inhibit dietary uptake of some nutrients, slows digestion (limiting how much they can consume in a day) and provide beta-glucans, which contribute to sticky poops. Sticky fecal is an additional disease vector, and increases weather risks in winter when it prevents them from fluffing tail feathers or gets stuck to feet.

You are also significantly reducing your Calcium (do you have an alternate source, or are they all molting???) and non-phytate Phosphorus. I don't know that there is enough Phytase enzyme in your primary feed to compensate.

You are also significantly increasing their fat intake. While that does provide more dietary energy, its likely more than they need, even in winter, which leads to fat birds - that has consequences of its own.

So, while its not as bad as it could be, I do strongly recommend against what you propose.

 

[Dominique King]

I am going to be adding oyster shells to it as well and I also said it is not going to be making up all of their food. Their main food is their Soy Free Egg Production Plus from Poulin Grain.

 

[Dominique King]

But I will try something else to add to it to make it more nutritional.
I Still am experimenting with all of this so please forgive me.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I am going to be adding oyster shells to it as well and I also said it is not going to be making up all of their food. Their main food is their Soy Free Egg Production Plus from Poulin Grain.

Oyster shell is good.

I understand that you don't intend this to be all their food, or even their main food.

You did, however, mistakenly assert that you were giving your flock "more nutrition". Most assuredly, you are not.

You also stated you gave 24 birds about 4 cups of this stuff. Obviously, there's a lot of variation between feeds, particularly whole grain feeds, but I'd anticipate those 4 cups to weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 3.25#. The "thumb rule" is about about 1/4# of feed, per bird, per day for adult production layers (that's a very loose "rule", subject to adjustment for a lot of factors).

The anticipated feed requirement for your flock is around 6# per day, so you've just replaced half their anticipated daily intake with your mix.

I can do the math in my head. I already did in fact. and stand by my statements above.

Remember this post? I applaud your earnestness, and your willingness to jump in feet first, but suggest you jump into the research, understand the theory, before you start experimenting on your birds.

...and to the extent that your birds eat more than they otherwise would attempting to compensate for the nutritional deficiencies in your scratch mix, greater consumption reduces savings on a pound : pound comparison.

 

[Dominique King]

Thank you for your feedback I do still need help that is why I am trying to do this now before winter.
But now I feel bad about this.
I am doing only like 1 1/2 cups a day because I am not making it up as their whole feed.
So anymore info you can give me will be appreciated.
And if you even have your own simple mix then that is even better!
Please any help is amazing!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

The more I learn about making feed, the less inclined I am to attempt to make it on my own. I've taken a radically different approach, which is both impractical and not recommended by me* for most.

I will suggest some basic math.

Your primary feed is 18% CP, with a Met level of 0.4%. Recommended nutritional minimums for adult production layers was (in 1984) 16% CP, 0.3% Met. Modern research suggest a higher Met number allows a lower CP number -the EU does some of this.

Your Oat/Corn mix claims 8% CP, and both oats and corn have average Met levels around 0.16 - .17. Your 5 grain scratch claims 12% CP, and Met at .18. WHole sunflower? About 15.8% CP (best case, the black oil sunflower seed usually closer to 14), with a Met of .34. And your Inclusion ratio of 50 / 12 / 10 (that's 72# btw, not 78#).

CP	Met	Weight	Total CP	Total Met
8​	0.165​	50​	400​	8.25​
12​	0.18​	12​	144​	2.16​
15.8​	0.34​	10​	158​	3.4​
		72​	702​	13.81​
		Average	9.75​	0.191806​

That's 9.75% CP, 0.19 Met for your mix.

Some more math and:

4 Parts regular feed, 1 part your scratch mix, keeps you above recommended minimums for those two factors (16.3, almost 0.36).

Now do the same for Lysine, consider Threonine, Tryptophan (labels won't allow you to do these last two, they aren't disclosed. You need to understand where ingredients are strong and weak in their amino acids.) Total dietary energy intake. I don't pretend to look at vitamins and minerals (likely low there, too).

Then add in whatever you can get from your greens (not much) - which is why we eat grains, seeds, and legumes, not St. Augustine, Fescue, and Zoysia as our preferred vegetable matter.



*because I don't believe most have the knowledge to fairly judge the risks involved.

 

[Dominique King]

Oh I forgot to add that I also feed them SCOBI or SCOBY from my homemade kombucha which I cut up and give to them when I pour out the batch that is ready and feed them the old SCOBY. I also give them dairy Kiefer grains in addition to all the kitchen trimmings from when we prepare veggies.

 

[Shadrach]

There are some very simple but often ignored or not well understood considerations when it comes to deciding to try making a feed to replace commercial feed. U_Stormcrow has given you the math, I'm going to give you a bit to consider regarding the keeping conditions which in my opinion will have a geater impact on the chickens health than a few percentage ponts of this chemical or that chemical. Yup, it's all chemicals, foraged or given.
Free range, there really isn't a satisfactory in common use definition. A chicken ranging on a quarter acre of managed garden isn't going to get the same forage opportunities as a chicken ranging on a few acres of farm land.
If one grows vegetables or other edible crops on the quarter acre plot the forage diversity is likely to increase if the chickens can get at them. Different crops attract different bugs and underground life, so diversity and quality become important.
If a garden has been deliberately planted with chicken edible plants (there isn't much they wont try out) then forage opportunities increase. So, what does your yard look like, how big is it and whats growing in it?
My current view is if chickens are mainly confined, no matter how big the run is, within reason, stick to commercial feed.
If you've got acres of mixed woodland and vegitation and the chickens range on it from dawn till dusk then it's not really going to matter what you provide, again witnin reason. The free range chickens I've cared for on farmland hardly ate any commercial feed during the spring and summer months. A twenty kilo bag of feed would last a month for twenty to thirty chickens on average with the free rangers I've looked after. That's being offered commercial feed twice a day. Not a lot of point in worrying about the nutritional analysis of a feed if they aren't eating it.
Big birds need big meals.
High production breeds need more careful feed considerations than birds that may lay 100 to 120 eggs a year. The more eggs a hen lays the more nutrition she needs. What breed are your chickens?
There isn't much in the way of forage that is going to provide the 5% fat or less in the natural range of what free range chickens will eat during a day. Some grasses have more fat than 5%, add a few worms and bugs and the fat content can go way past 5%. Fat content is imporatnt for sedenatary birds and in general fully contained birds do not get anything like the excercise of free rangers. Get lots of exercise and the fat gets burnt much like with humans.
Look at the bird, then at the land and then think about what to provide in the way of an alternative feed.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Some of those hypotheticals can be answered via reference to his you tube channel.

I looked first. But it was sheer happenstance I was aware he had one.